The Housing Bubble

The Press Democrat reports from California. “Sonoma County’s housing slide hit the two-year mark in August as prices fell yet again, and the market may not hit bottom for another year, industry analysts say. The county’s typical home sold for $549,990 in August, the 14th consecutive month the price was down from a year earlier. Prices have dropped 11.1 percent from the record high of $619,000 in August 2005.”

“And 2007 is shaping up worse than 2006. ‘It was a tough summer. We’re having probably a greater adjustment in the market than I’ve seen in the past,’ said Brian Connell, broker in Santa Rosa.”

“‘My guess is we haven’t seen the end of it,’ said said Steve Cochrane, regional economist for Moody’s Economy.com. ‘Once we hit a floor on prices, I don’t see any significant turnaround.’”

“‘The pool of buyers shrunk by about 30 percent because of the tighter requirements,’ said John Klein, executive VP for a Santa Rosa mortgage broker. ‘It really hit in August.’”

“The market for homes priced under $500,000 is feeling the greatest impact. ‘That’s where most of the price decline has been because that’s where the inventory is growing and where the credit crunch is felt the most. Because people who would like to purchase those homes a lot of times don’t have the financial strength,’ Laws said.”

“Lenders and real estate brokers acknowledge the market’s downturn represents a necessary correction from housing’s recent boom. ‘In retrospect, we shouldn’t be too surprised by it,’ Connell said. ‘Home ownership was way up, but it was probably true that there were some folks buying property who probably shouldn’t have.’”

The Recordnet. “As the housing market sinks deeper into the biggest slowdown that local real-estate brokers can remember, the few agents who specialize in foreclosures are hopping busy.”

“Kevin Moran, an agent (in) Stockton, was involved in some foreclosure deals in the mid-’90s real-estate downturn brought on by a statewide recession, but he’s in it exclusively this round because he sees much bigger opportunities.”

“‘It’s the tip of the iceberg,’ he said of the growing mass of foreclosures in San Joaquin County.”

The Tribune. “The median price of a home in San Luis Obispo County dropped in August, marking the sixth consecutive month that indicator has dropped, according to Dataquick. And for further emphasis of the problems facing the local housing market, the total number of houses sold in the county was 302, the smallest number for the month of August since 1992.”

“Andrew LePage, an analyst with DataQuick, said that San Luis Obispo County’s market mirrored what is occurring statewide. ‘The current slowdown in SLO and beyond has more to do with the aforementioned pre-met demand, the lost speculative fervor, fast-rising foreclosures in the interior of the state, and higher-cost financing,’ LePage said.”

“Foreclosure activity in San Luis Obispo County continues to rise to levels not seen in more than a dozen years, according to the most recent data from All American Foreclosure Service.”

“Through the end of August, lenders had sent homeowners 758 notices of default —the first step in the foreclosure process. That’s more than twice the same period last year (340) and nearly 40 percent more than in all of 2006 (554).”

“Meanwhile, 192 trustee’s deeds—the final step in the foreclosure process when the owner loses the home — were recorded from January through August, compared to 31 in the same period last year. In 2006, 64 trustee’s deeds were recorded.”

The Signal. “As most of Southern California faces steep declines in home sales and prices, the buyers and sellers of Santa Clarita see a similar market as the current inventory of houses on the market almost triples the number of listed homes that are actually sold last month, according to Realtor Pam Ingram.”

“In the beginning of August, there was an average of 2,358 single family homes on the market with a median list price of $629,000, according to Ingram. Ingram said the homes actually closed with a median sale price of $517,000 because of the slow market.”

“‘This shows that people are listing high, but having to drop the number to get it into escrow,’ Ingram said.”

“Ingram pointed out that from the 2,358 homes on the market, 611 were new listings and from that, 286 went into escrow and 277 actually closed. With such a high inventory, Ingram added, ‘If we didn’t add any new homes to the market, then it would take a total of nine months to sell the inventory we have.’”

“As for home prices, Ingram said that they have not dropped as much as other Southern California neighborhoods, but a 10 to 15 percent decrease could happen in the next few months.”

“With the high inventory, Ingram said it is a buyer’s market as interest rates and the economy are good. ‘Buyers are nervous, but there are a lot of incentives available,’ she said. ‘One was even offering a car.’”

The Orange County Register. “The Fish,on the hunt for a larger home for an expanding family, perused new homes in the same Talega community in which they’ve lived for three years. The search seemed more attractive when they found out about Irvine-based Standard Pacific Corp.’s ‘Mission: Possible’ sale sweetened by offers of reduced mortgage rates and home prices, and other incentives.”

“The offers – part of the homebuilder’s 10-day effort to sell 200 properties in their luxury-home inventory in Southern California – enticed some prospective buyers in south county Saturday, though the number of browsers seemed less than ample.”

“‘Two years ago, the market got so hot that you were able to buy one without a down payment,’ said John Burns, a real estate consultant. ‘There are fewer people who can afford to buy than earlier. So the builders have had to adjust their prices.’”

“‘These sales are tremendous. I don’t know how a re-seller can compete, because homebuilders have dropped prices and homeowners haven’t,’ Burns said.”

“The median home price in Orange County for August was $642,250, up 1.9 percent from a year ago. However, DataQuick and local experts maintain that the figure has been skewed upward by weaker sales for starter homes and relatively stronger sales for pricier homes.”

“For example, sales drops were greatest for homes at the middle of the price range and just below it, falling 47 percent in the $600,000-to-$700,000 price category and 39 percent in the $500,000-to-$600,000 range. Sales declined for pricier homes, too, but not as drastically, dropping just 32 percent for homes priced at $700,000 and above.”

“John and Gina Forney, who purchased their home in a Talega neighborhood in July before the sale, said the location was a main draw, in addition to upgraded features in their near-$900,000 house.”

“The Forneys said the homebuilder also offered $45,000 in incentives, which included upgrades to the flooring and money toward closing costs. They plan to close the deal next month.”

“‘Now the market is really hard,’ said John Forney. ‘We just wanted to get into something.’”

The Press Enterprise. “A spokeswoman for J.D. Power and Associates said while times are tough for builders amid slowing sales, those who buy are getting pricing and other incentives, better warranty coverage and on-time construction completion rates, as well as improved customer service.”

“‘The things builders are suffering from are now actually benefiting consumers,’ said Paula Sonkin, the firm’s VP of real estate and construction research.”

“With new-homes sales down in the Inland region and nationwide, especially compared with the frenzied buying period of 2004 to early 2006, Sonkin said consumers are citing better relations with builders’ construction site managers. Many managers are inviting buyers to become involved in the building process for their homes, rather than telling them, ‘It’s not yours yet.’”

The Ventura County Star. “No surprise that last week’s ‘Boomer or Bust’ conference on housing packed the house (in) Oxnard. ‘Boomer or bust,’ indeed, with the top headline in Thursday’s Star: ‘Foreclosure sales up 784% in 2007.’”

“That is 548 foreclosure sales in Ventura County through the second quarter of this year, compared with 62 the first half of last year. People laughed when the conference topic turned to housing affordability and an audience member quipped, ‘Getting more affordable all the time.’”

The Brownville Herald reports from Texas. “Don Currie used to see no more than two people a month walk through his doors, seeking advice on how to handle the pending foreclosure of their home. Last month, Currie, who is the executive director of the Community Development Corporation of Brownsville, has seen walk-ins quintuple as an increasing number people have begun defaulting on their loans.”

“The housing market downturn has only begun to be felt in Brownsville, Currie said. ‘This will definitely have a broader impact on the local economy,’ he said. ‘How much could be a shock to everybody.’”

From KHOU.com in Texas. “A foreclosure sign in Spring. From Wall Street to the streets of suburbia, home foreclosures are on an unprecedented rise: 30,000 houses in the Houston area last month alone.”

“‘There’s just so much of it,’ assistant district attorney John Brewer said.”

“‘It’s almost the perfect storm,’ mortgage lender David Zugheri said. ‘The fraud has not made it to the surface on loans that were already done.’”

The Houston Chronicle in Texas. “Since August, at least 500 Houston-area residents have lost, or will soon lose, jobs in the mortgage industry. Nationally, construction companies and title insurers have trimmed their ranks, though such cutbacks have not been widespread here.”

“These early layoffs…are ‘glimpses of evidence’ that problems in the national real estate market have hit Houston, said Barton Smith, director of the Institute for Regional Forecasting at the University of Houston. ‘There may be a ripple effect where you’re only seeing the tip of the iceberg.’”

“He notes that single-family housing starts in the area are down about 20 percent, which will translate into fewer construction jobs.”

The Waco Tribune from Texas. “More communities are becoming barrels of rotten apples as the nation reels from rampant foreclosures and a subprime-mortgage mess. In Waco, one culprit sits amid gathering weeds atChimney Corner Drive, in a subdivision otherwise filled with manicured yards and well-kept homes owned by professionals.”

“Real estate agent Debra Lyon tried to sell the house, ‘but it needed updating,’ she says, adding that most people don’t view $450,000 houses as fixer-uppers. It didn’t sell over several months.”

“The offending house, which sports five bedrooms, an in-ground pool, spa and two fireplaces, was posted for foreclosure and presented for sale Tuesday on the steps of the McLennan County Courthouse.”

“The holder of the note, World Savings Bank, set the opening price at $441,474. No one bid on the house, so the bank took it back and will place it on the market, spokesman Scott Emery said.”

“Figures show that Waco’s inventory of homes is growing, and higher inventories can exert downward pressures on prices and may give builders second thoughts about building new homes. Texas A&M University reports that McLennan County in July had 8.6 months worth of inventory on the market. That’s up from 7.6 months in July of last year and six months in July of 2005. One local real estate agent, who asked that her name not be used, says her listed homes are moving like molasses.”

“Subprime loans in some cases were called ‘no-doc’ loans because some lenders did practically nothing to document a borrower’s worthiness. ‘These didn’t become bad loans; they were bad the day they were made. They were destined for problems,’ says David Smith, president of Central National Bank in Waco.”

From My West Texas. “After frantic spring and summer, the Permian Basin Board of Realtors says there are more houses available. A slight shift in the ‘fast and furious’ housing market has created healthier conditions for buyers and sellers and more listings overall, according to Laura Lyons, president of the Permian Basin Board of Realtors.”

“Lyons told the Reporter-Telegram this past week current market conditions include 386 active listings, the most in some time, she said, and considerably more than the 226 on the market in May.”

“‘I think (the market) has slowed down,’ said Realtor Victoria Printz. ‘We have nearly double the inventory we had in the spring and summer.’”

The Denver Post from Colorado. “All Jan Chandler wanted to do was avoid foreclosure, so she listed her Lafayette home for $45,000 less than its appraised value of $315,000. But in today’s slumping real estate market, that still wasn’t enough to lure a buyer, so Chandler dropped the price even more.”

“‘I sold it for about $12,000 less than what I owed on it,’ said Chandler. ‘I was lying awake at night thinking how I was going to avoid bankruptcy.’”

“‘It went from $2,200 to $2,800 a month,’ she said. ‘Even with a good job, there is no way I could afford another $600 a month.’”

“In the past few weeks, real estate agent Bob Winkler has recommended that at least four of his clients reduce the asking prices of the homes they are trying to sell. It’s a far cry from the heady years when buyers scrambled to buy, making offers well above listing prices.”

“‘Back in 2000 when the market was really hot, I used to kid that you’d list a house and take a ridiculous figure, add 10 percent and start packing,’ said Winkler. ‘Now, you’ve got to have it in tip-top shape and be willing to spend money.’”

“Longmont has seen the average home price drop 18 percent in 2007 to $285,000. Discounts have increased more in Longmont than in any other Denver region, from 8 percent to 15 percent.”

“‘We’re having trouble because the builders keep building,’ said broker Mike Welk. ‘It’s really taken a toll on some of the inventory that’s already here. They (builders) can offer a higher discount than we can as individual home sellers. When you can go buy a brand new house that’s five miles away, why would you buy something that’s been used for 30 years.’”

“Of the slightly more than 1 million mortgage loans in Colorado, 3.87 percent were delinquent, versus a 5.12 percent rate for the U.S. as a whole, according to a recent survey from the Mortgage Bankers Association.”

“Subprime loans are defaulting at a much higher rate, with 11.04 percent past due. The MBA counted 127,876 subprime loans in the state.”

“‘I’ve seen downturns before, but I’ve never seen this level of panic among the investors,’ said Jim Spray of America’s Mortgage LLC who’s been in the mortgage industry for three decades.”

“Alicia and Kent Pope thought they had everything lined up to buy a $200,000 home in Parker, but because of less-than-perfect credit, the couple has had to put their plans on hold.”

“‘We were going to qualify just barely,’ said Alicia Pope. ‘We found a great home in a short-sale situation, and we were ready to move on it.’”

“But when it came time, the lender they were working with said he couldn’t provide the letter needed to present an offer to the seller. ‘They said things are different; they’ve changed all the criteria. They’ve tightened up,’ Alicia Pope said. ‘It looks like we are going to be out of luck unless our situation gets better or things change again.’”

“For every buyer who can’t close on a house, there’s a seller stuck with a home. Take Paul Tamburello. He had his $600,000 home in the Highland neighborhood on the market for four months before putting it under contract July 24. He was scheduled to close on Aug. 31.”

“The buyer had planned on 100 percent financing but when the credit markets blew up, he was unable to qualify. Even when he came up with 5 percent down, his credit score - around 650 - was too low for the bank’s comfort.”

“‘If the FICO scores were in the 700s, he probably could have gotten it done,’ said Tamburello, who took his home off the market and plans to refinance.”

“Buyers of investment property also are having a tough time. Nearly three months ago, Oliver Esparham was approved to receive a 100 percent loan to finance the purchase of a multifamily property, which another buyer outbid him for.”

“Esparham continued looking, assuming he’d get the same type of financing. But when he found a $310,000 property at 14th Avenue and Clayton Street, the bank told him he’d need 20 percent down.”

“‘We’d checked out the units and done all the financial planning to see if it was positive income,’ Esparham said. ‘It looked good up until the point they told me I had to have 20 percent. That’s a lot out of pocket with the way the economy is now.’”

“Ashlie Woods, Esparham’s real estate agent, blames the banks for lending to people they shouldn’t have. She said the market hasn’t seen the full impact.”

“‘It’s going to spiral down, and it’s going to affect the market even more,’ Woods said. ‘People aren’t buying product, and we’re not moving it. There are going to be more properties on the market than ever.’”

The News Press reports from Florida. “Last year, Jonathan Kline decided to take a risk and build two houses in Lehigh Acres. Kline, a Maryland resident and financial consultant, discovered Southwest Florida’s sliding housing market after they were completed in April. Like thousands of other houses across the county, Kline’s homes sit vacant while he tries to sell them.”

“‘I bought these houses, but I sure as heck didn’t do my homework,’ Kline said. ‘They never told me how bad it could get.’”

“Since 2000, the county has added 95,000 housing units. The number of vacant houses for sale has more than doubled to 9,723.”

“Kline’s houses have been vacant for five months. Although one should be sold soon, he said he’s still going to lose almost $250,000. ‘That’s a pretty crushing blow. It’s a heck of a lesson,’ he said. ‘I shouldn’t have been speculating in an arena I had no knowledge of.’”

“About 35 percent of the houses on the market were built in 2005 or more recently, said Michael Polly, VP of a Fort Myers real estate brokerage. ‘They’re new homes that people bought two or three of that they’re trying to flip,’ he said. ‘Most of them have not been occupied.’”

“Residences being completed now were issued permits 18 to 24 months ago, he said. That means the recent slowdown in permits will not be seen until almost two years from now, he said.”

“The number of houses adds up to about 27 months of inventory; normal inventory is between 5-10 months. ‘If nothing else came in the market, it would take 27 months to sell,’ Polly said. ‘It’s the most I’ve ever seen.’”

The Washington Post. “The Sun Belt city of Fort Myers, Florida, saw real estate and construction grow to dominate its economy, accounting in recent years for nearly one out of every four jobs.”

“‘We are in a real estate recession,’ said Laurance Baer, manager of the Fort Myers-based Baer’s Furniture chain, where sales are plummeting. ‘And we have an economy that’s much more tied to real estate than anyone realized.’”

“During the boom year of 2005, the take-home pay of Dawn Shevlin’s family reached $350,000. That year, she and her husband bought two pickup trucks and a boat, and started building a custom home on a handsome beachfront lot.”

“This year, Shevlin, a real estate agent, sold hardly any homes. Her husband’s carpentry business is ‘dead in the water.’ They have been unable to sell a second home they own.”

“Every night, she said, ‘we fight over every dollar.’ With their income below $60,000, they have more bills than they can pay and have ruled out any big purchases. Even dinner at a modest restaurant is too great an extravagance.”

“‘I feel like I should be going to a higher place in my career,’ she said. ‘Instead I’m taking 20 steps back.’”

“‘You could make a lot of mistakes and still make money,’ said said William P. Valenti, a longtime banker. ‘People thought it would always be that way.’”

The St Petersburg Times. “In the wild real estate market of 19 months ago, Elmo Bench’s deal to buy a house in Brooksville made a weird kind of sense. The price, $170,000, was the going rate for a three-bedroom house, which was barely big enough for Bench, his girlfriend and their three children.”

“The monthly mortgage payment, $1,240, seemed high, considering he clears only $1,400 a month. But the lender, the now-defunct Homefield Financial told him he could refinance at a lower rate once he built up equity in the house. And, if he got in a bind, he figured he could always sell it for more than he paid.”

“Now, he wonders what he and Homefield were thinking. ‘I just wish they had never given me that loan,’ said Bench, who has been swept up in the wave of foreclosures sweeping the county, the state and the nation.”

“Through the middle of last week, lenders had filed 1,114 foreclosure cases in Hernando County during 2007 - 174 just in August. That compares to 728 during all of last year and 528 the year before that.”

“Bench owed $167,634 on a house that, according to the Hernando County Property Appraiser’s Office, has a market value of $131,000. At one foreclosure auction last week at the county government center, not a single buyer entered a bid.”

“‘There’s just no equity on these houses,’ said Jack Gavish, a Brooksville Realtor.”

The Miami Herald. “Broward County Property Appraiser Lori Parrish has fielded the question ‘values are dropping this year, so why did my assessment go up?’ from property owners so often that she’s posted an explanation at the top of her homepage.”

“Some South Florida property owners will be paying taxes based on valuations that they could only dream of selling their properties for amid the current housing slump. ‘As of Jan. 1, it’s accurate, but it may not reflect the resale value today,’ says Marcus Saiz de la Mora, the acting Miami-Dade Property Appraiser.”

“Stanley Jacobs, who owns four Miami-Dade rental properties, is fuming after seeing his property assessments climb — in one case by $38,000, or 24 percent — despite the weak housing market. ‘I want answers why if the market is declining I was charged more,’ says Jacobs.”

“‘It’s going to be more pronounced next year,’ as this year’s decline in property values are reflected in 2008 tax calculations, says Robert L. Wolfe, Jr., a media and government relations officer at the Broward Property Appraiser.”

“Robert O’Leary, a Coconut Grove resident who owns four rental properties in Miami-Dade County, says he’s steaming that his assessments have risen sharply despite the housing slump, including one Coconut Grove property that jumped 37 percent in market value to $882,492 from $645,698.”

“‘Everyone who has a brain knows the housing market went bust in 2005,’ says O’Leary, who is appealing the county’s assessments to the VAB.”

The News Journal. “The great housing hangover throbs on. Three years after Hurricane Ivan supercharged an already hot local housing market, the good old days of soaring prices, easy money and fly-by-night flippers are long gone.”

“What’s left is an anemic Escambia-Santa Rosa County housing market, glutted with some 10,000 homes for sale, and beset with a stagnant number of transactions.”

“Add to that painful mix runaway insurance costs, crushing property taxes and a clampdown by banks on sub-prime mortgages and it’s a perfect storm of negatives stonewalling any significant near-term housing recovery.”

“‘Fallout from the end of the housing party is now showing up clearly, and this will inevitably affect consumer spending,’ said Rick Harper, director of an economic think tank based at the University of West Florida. ‘The housing market is not yet in recovery.’”

“‘Locally … home prices have grown much more rapidly than wages,’ said. ‘For most of the two decades prior to 2000, median home prices were about 3.2 times median annual household income. They are now about 4.5 times median household income.’”

The Herald Tribune. “Not long ago, carpenter Kristopher Phillips could not keep up with the orders for moulding in the hundreds of homes being built in North Port.”

“In August, North Port issued permits for 12 new homes — the lowest monthly total in five years. The city issued more than that in a day back in 2005 and 2006, when North Port led the region in new home construction.”

“‘We were doing 15 homes a week,’ said Phillips. ‘Now I get maybe one a month. Maybe.’”

“North Port’s August building permit numbers are down 89 percent compared with the same month a year ago. ‘I believe that that this is the bottom,’ said Ron Hill, president of the Charlotte/Desoto Building Industry Association. ‘If anybody is interested in getting a deal on a new house, there’s no better time than right now.’”

“‘You knew that something was going to give because of the speculators in the market,’ said Tammy Lynch, president of the Home Builders Association of Manatee County.”

“Centex Homes pulled two of the 12 permits issued last month. ‘We’re not even halfway built out,’ said Megan Zoller, sales consultant, of the company’s two neighborhoods going up on Toledo Blade Boulevard. Centex plans 1,257 homes along the roadway that connects North Port to Interstate 75.”

The Palm Beach Post. “Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast - where boom-time home sales sizzled and prices went through the roof - remain ’stubbornly overvalued’ even though the party’s over.”

“That’s the conclusion of a report by economic research giant Global Insight, which studied second-quarter single-family home prices in 330 metropolitan areas around the country. Home prices in Port St. Lucie, which had a median price of $226,400, were overvalued by 40 percent, according to the study.”

“Despite steady price declines documented by the oversight office, the market was still 28 percent overvalued in the second quarter, the study reports.”

“‘The price that the model is generating, the one that market fundamentals would support, is $216,500,’ said Jennifer Cataldi, senior economist and Global Insight’s manager of real estate service. ‘That’s where the market should be at, based on the fundamentals that we are looking at.’”

“In all, 80 of 330 markets nationwide had price declines while 51 were ‘extremely overvalued,’ the report said. Florida and its coastal areas, plus the corridor from Washington to Boston, accounted for most of the metros with ‘extreme overvaluation.’”

“Global Insight defines extreme overvaluation as a variation of at least 33 percent between what a sale price is and what it should be.”

“Richard Langhorne is trying to make lemonade out of a lemon of a real estate deal. The CB Richard Ellis exec is working to find a buyer willing to pay a steep price for the failed Villa Mare condo conversion in Boca Raton.”

“Villa Mare is the subject of a $50 million foreclosure lawsuit, the largest foreclosure action in Palm Beach County. Villa Mare’s owner recently hired CB to find a buyer and rescue it from this disastrous deal.”

“It seems the property might have greater value as something other than a condo or apartment. (Hotel or condo-hotel, anyone?)”

“It was only in April 2006 that Ocean bank loaned NRW Development LLC $59.6 million to buy the former Oceanview/Lakeview apartments for the Villa Mare project. Plans were to turn the aging apartments into a luxury condo beach club, with individual units costing up to $1.2 million each.”

“But NRW’s plans washed out. Analysts say NRW overpaid for the apartments. And NRW launched Villa Mare just as it was patently clear the market for converting apartments to condos had come and gone. Some $50 million remains unpaid on the loan, prompting Ocean Bank’s June foreclosure lawsuit against NRW and its principals.”

“If Ocean Bank couldn’t see this deal going south, it seems NRW officials could. Two investors say NRW reps were trying to get out of the deal only months after getting into it.”

“If a potential buyer is even thinking of condos, Pickett suggests they think again. ‘Condos are radioactive right now,’ said HABS Capital’s John Pickett. ‘I’d be shocked if they get $50 million in this market.’”

What do you see in your local housing market this weekend? Lower prices? “Need evidence that the high-end housing market is in turnaround? Well, the news that Lorraine Bracco has dropped the price of her 2-acre Sneden’s Landing estate to $2.9 million pretty well proves the point. The home, you might remember, was first listed all the way back in 2004—right around the time the air first started leaking out of the real-estate bubble—at $4.4 mil.”

A new home fire sale? “Calling it a fire sale might be a little much. But one of the Triad’s top home builders kicked off a three-day discount blitz Friday in hopes of luring hesitant home buyers and bringing in some quick cash.”

“Hovnanian Enterprises has cut prices by more than 20 percent in prime markets and shaved more than 10 percent off the price of some Triad properties.”

“‘I’ve been here for eight years, and I’ll be honest with you,’ said Richelle Smart, an area sales and marketing manager for K. Hovnanian Homes. ‘We’ve never offered anything like this.’”

More foreclosures? “The number of houses hitting the auction block in Tarrant County will be down in October, but Dallas-Fort Worth is still on pace to surpass a record 40,000 foreclosures this year, according to figures released Thursday by Foreclosure Listing Service.”

“‘This will be the highest level of annual residential foreclosure postings since the real estate bust of the late 1980s,’ said George Roddy, president of the Addison-based company.”

“The lower monthly figure does not change the trend that has been building for five years, Roddy cautioned.”

Or realtor recommendations. “In reality, so far, resale prices for some of the hardest hit residential communities in the Valley are down around 16.4 percent from the December 2005 peak.”

“If we anticipate the worst - mass foreclosures, with lenders dumping properties for pennies on the dollar - what can you do now to escape ruin? Price your property to sell.”

“If you live in an archetypical suburban Phoenix home, your house is worth today just about what it would have sold for in April or May 2005. If you’re priced higher than that, you may be priced too high to sell.”

Please post off-topic ideas, links and Craigslist finds here.